Real Books Anytime and Anywhere

The digital era is replete with promises that never quite get fulfilled. Remember the predictions that every home would one day have a library of CD Rom discs that would provide information from how to cook a pot roast to how to fix a leaking faucet? Never happened. How about the vision of a small army robots cleaning the bathroom or cutting the lawn? Still waiting? There are some recent developments that may make the prediction of radical changes in what we read and how we read it come true. I am not referring to electronic readers like Kindle™ that I wrote about a few weeks ago. This new technology provides a much more attractive reading experience.

A New York based company, On Demand Books LLC., has been developing a system that allows books to be printed on-demand. Founded in 2003, the company has developed and patented a machine that can print and bind a single book in a matter of minutes. The machine that looks like a standard office copier, albeit a bit larger, is connected via the internet to a database of millions of titles.

While having books available on line is nothing new, the reading experience of holding a bulky viewer or, worse, trying to read long passages on a small PDA or cell phone screen has kept the numbers of users of electronic readers quite limited. Like it or not the bound paper book is indeed very efficient and comfortable.

It is estimated that there are some 23,000 locations in the US that sell books; about 6,000 are book stores. For all of these stores, and even the behemoth online provider, Amazon.com, one of the big issues is “inventory.” What to stock and what not to have on hand. With thousands of titles coming available each year the problem gets more and more pronounced. A dozen copies of a book on the shelf gathering dust does not money make!

This new technology allows the placement of a kiosk with the Espresso Book Machine™ almost anywhere. A customer, in the space of a few minutes, can be provided with a printed copy of just about any book. The price of the on-demand book is very close to the price of a book printed in the traditional manner.

Right now there are only about a dozen of these machines in operation. Priced at over $100,000, they are not inexpensive. The company is still negotiating with publishers and authors for rights to offer various books. Authors and publishers should like this technology as it helps them protect their copyrights.

So some day soon when you are going to the beach and are looking for a good book, your choices at the local drug store might be a lot broader.

Real Books Anytime and Anywhere

The digital era is replete with promises that never quite get fulfilled. Remember the predictions that every home would one day have a library of CD Rom discs that would provide information from how to cook a pot roast to how to fix a leaking faucet? Never happened. How about the vision of a small army robots cleaning the bathroom or cutting the lawn? Still waiting? There are some recent developments that may make the prediction of radical changes in what we read and how we read it come true. I am not referring to electronic readers like Kindle™ that I wrote about a few weeks ago. This new technology provides a much more attractive reading experience.

A New York based company, On Demand Books LLC., has been developing a system that allows books to be printed on-demand. Founded in 2003, the company has developed and patented a machine that can print and bind a single book in a matter of minutes. The machine that looks like a standard office copier, albeit a bit larger, is connected via the internet to a database of millions of titles.

While having books available on line is nothing new, the reading experience of holding a bulky viewer or, worse, trying to read long passages on a small PDA or cell phone screen has kept the numbers of users of electronic readers quite limited. Like it or not the bound paper book is indeed very efficient and comfortable.

It is estimated that there are some 23,000 locations in the US that sell books; about 6,000 are book stores. For all of these stores, and even the behemoth online provider, Amazon.com, one of the big issues is “inventory.” What to stock and what not to have on hand. With thousands of titles coming available each year the problem gets more and more pronounced. A dozen copies of a book on the shelf gathering dust does not money make!

This new technology allows the placement of a kiosk with the Espresso Book Machine™ almost anywhere. A customer, in the space of a few minutes, can be provided with a printed copy of just about any book. The price of the on-demand book is very close to the price of a book printed in the traditional manner.

Right now there are only about a dozen of these machines in operation. Priced at over $100,000, they are not inexpensive. The company is still negotiating with publishers and authors for rights to offer various books. Authors and publishers should like this technology as it helps them protect their copyrights.

So some day soon when you are going to the beach and are looking for a good book, your choices at the local drug store might be a lot broader.

A New Way to Connect to the Internet

There may be some good news on the horizon for those who want less costly high speed broadband Internet connections at home. Joining the two dominant suppliers in our area, Cincinnati Bell and Time Warner Cable, is Duke Energy. That’s right, the same folks that bring you electric and gas service are now marketing high speed access to the Internet with a new product dubbed Current™. This new service uses a technology first developed in Europe.

Essentially the Internet connection piggybacks on the electric wires strung on the poles on your street and into your house. There is no need for any new wiring in your house. Each electric outlet in your house becomes a high speed Internet connection. A special modem the size of a cell phone plugs into an electric outlet and a cable from the modem to your computer completes the connection. The Current™ Internet access is capable of speeds comparable to popular Internet plans from cable and phone companies. There is a tremendous amount of technology that allows this to happen, but for the consumer, connecting is as simple as plugging in.

Duke Energy, and before them Cinergy, working with The CURRENT Group, LLC, a privately held company based in Germantown, Maryland, began testing this technology in the Cincinnati area a few years ago with a limited roll out in selected neighborhoods. According to company reports, the roll out is limited to an area of about 50,000 homes. As of this writing it is still not available in the Harrison area. I have not been able to get information when we might see the service offered in our area but will keep checking and mention it in future columns.

There are a number of other uses of this technology besides providing Internet access to consumers at home. Duke Energy and other utilities can use the system to electronically read your electric meter or selectively turn on or off electrical devices in your home in the event of high energy demands.

One byproduct of Duke expanding a presence in the local broadband market and that is good old competition. Right now Time Warner’s Road Runner® and Cincinnati Bell’s ZoomTown® are the only games in town. While they periodically offer special rates and packages with TV, Internet and phone service, the average cost of high speed internet service is still on the high side for either service. A third player in the region should add some pressure for lower rates and better service. We will just have to wait.

A clarification – A few weeks ago in my column about the iPhone® I said that Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue from the New York Times each got an iPhone®. David emailed me to clarify that he only has use of the devices he reviews for a short period and then they go back. If Steve Jobs sends me an iPhone®, I guess I will have to do the same thing.

A New Way to Connect to the Internet

There may be some good news on the horizon for those who want less costly high speed broadband Internet connections at home. Joining the two dominant suppliers in our area, Cincinnati Bell and Time Warner Cable, is Duke Energy. That’s right, the same folks that bring you electric and gas service are now marketing high speed access to the Internet with a new product dubbed Current™. This new service uses a technology first developed in Europe.

Essentially the Internet connection piggybacks on the electric wires strung on the poles on your street and into your house. There is no need for any new wiring in your house. Each electric outlet in your house becomes a high speed Internet connection. A special modem the size of a cell phone plugs into an electric outlet and a cable from the modem to your computer completes the connection. The Current™ Internet access is capable of speeds comparable to popular Internet plans from cable and phone companies. There is a tremendous amount of technology that allows this to happen, but for the consumer, connecting is as simple as plugging in.

Duke Energy, and before them Cinergy, working with The CURRENT Group, LLC, a privately held company based in Germantown, Maryland, began testing this technology in the Cincinnati area a few years ago with a limited roll out in selected neighborhoods. According to company reports, the roll out is limited to an area of about 50,000 homes. As of this writing it is still not available in the Harrison area. I have not been able to get information when we might see the service offered in our area but will keep checking and mention it in future columns.

There are a number of other uses of this technology besides providing Internet access to consumers at home. Duke Energy and other utilities can use the system to electronically read your electric meter or selectively turn on or off electrical devices in your home in the event of high energy demands.

One byproduct of Duke expanding a presence in the local broadband market and that is good old competition. Right now Time Warner’s Road Runner® and Cincinnati Bell’s ZoomTown® are the only games in town. While they periodically offer special rates and packages with TV, Internet and phone service, the average cost of high speed internet service is still on the high side for either service. A third player in the region should add some pressure for lower rates and better service. We will just have to wait.

A clarification – A few weeks ago in my column about the iPhone® I said that Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue from the New York Times each got an iPhone®. David emailed me to clarify that he only has use of the devices he reviews for a short period and then they go back. If Steve Jobs sends me an iPhone®, I guess I will have to do the same thing.